a report from Councillor Dennis J. Carlone and Councillor Leland Cheung, Co-Chairs of the Ordinance Committee, for a public hearing held on May 11, 2016 to discuss a zoning petition by the Richard Avenue neighbors to amend Section 20.103.2 North Massachusetts Avenue Sub-district and Section 20.110 Standards Applicable in the North Massachusetts Avenue Sub-district on the north side of Massachusetts Avenue to extend from the centerline of Beech Street on the east to the centerline of Richard Avenue on the west and to amend the City of Cambridge Zoning Map by redrawing the North Massachusetts Avenue Sub-district for the northerly side of Massachusetts Avenue to extend from the centerline of Beech Street on the east to the centerline of Richard Avenue on the west
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ATTACHMENTA
ORDINANCE COMMITTEE MEETING, MAY 11, 2016 RE: STERN, et al PETITION
We're here to present the current Stern, et al Petition. For those of you who are not that
tamiliar with this Petition, it is the outcome of 18 months of work, expense, and collaboration
between the Richard Avenue Neighbors and 2551 Massachusetts Ave. LLC.
When this project was first presented to the Planning Board, many of the PB members
expressed the idea that the developer was "trying to do too much" The Richard Avenue
Neighbors strongly agreed. The PB directed both parties Developer and Neighborhood - to
work together to come up with a solution satisfactory to them at. We have done so. It is the
current Stern, et al Petition.
both.
The change the Petition seeks to make is to adjust the northern boundary of the North
Massachusetts Avenue subdistrict to terminate at the centerline of Richard Avenue rather than
at the western end of the 2551 site. This allows the 2551 site to revert to BA-2 base zoning
What the PB meant when they said to the developer 'you're trying to do too much' was that the
Developer was forced to fit his project to all the zoning requirements of the site, and there were
simply too many zoning hoops to jump through to produce anything which respected the
neighborhood. as well as the Mass Avenue guidelines for a pedestrian-friendly area.
I will quote the words of Planning Board Chairman Theodore Cohen from his letter following our
recent presentation of the Stern, et al Petition to the PB. ": The Board would not typically
support a petition to change the zoning of one small area in response to a redevelopment
proposal. However, in this case, having seen an awkward development proposal that attempted
to adhere to zoning as closely as possible, the Board believes that the current zoning may not
be well suited to this specific area"
What is lost with passage of the Stern, et al Petition, is the possibility for retail at a site at which
it is nearly impossible to accommodate retail. What is gained is four very handsome
townhouses which are an enhancement to the neighborhood.